


Façade

by cosmicmilktea



Category: Winner (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Architects, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Hyungline just needs a vacation, Lots of alcohol, M/M, Mentions of Taehyun, Mino is difficult, Ramblings about architecture, Seungyoon is a baby, You've been warned, and plants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-10
Updated: 2018-11-10
Packaged: 2019-08-21 15:18:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16579040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicmilktea/pseuds/cosmicmilktea
Summary: Architect Song Mino is a firm believer of form follows function, and thinks plants a waste of space. Garden Designer Kang Seungyoon believes that every building needs a touch of green.Somehow, they’ll have to build a vertical garden together without killing each other.





	Façade

“The new district library’s façade will be a vertical garden that spans the entirety of its height – Composed of plants that are native to the Busan bay and mountain area. This winning design is expected to be a new landmark that serves as a centerpiece to rebrand and revitalize the surrounding neighborhood - ”

“ _Absolutely not_ ” 

Mino’s familiar voice rang loud amidst the sedate hush of the presentation –Shutting down any of the usual shuffling and discreet coughs and pulling all attention to the now standing man – tinted glasses and dangling earrings alike glinting in unison. 

The city official presenting blinks – once, twice - and Jinwoo curses himself for not simply stuffing Mino’s mouth with whatever he had in hand the moment the younger man opened it. Really, he should have anticipated this better, but there are just things that escapes anticipation when one is running on two hours of sleep and too many bottles of energy drinks. 

“That was not in the final drawings – This must be a mistake” Mino continues, to the beginning of confused whispers across the room, and Jinwoo finally rises from his own seat, all smiles and bows towards the head of the table even as his foot stomps down on the man’s beside him – hard “Forgive us, gentlemen. Our principal architect must be confusing this with a parallel project that we’re also running“ 

Out of the corner of his eyes, Jinwoo noticed Mino begin to move his lips, and he digs his heels on the tip of Mino’s toes, eliciting a faint whimper of pain that he pretends he doesn’t hear “please continue with the presentation, and many apologies for the interruption”  
Mino glares at him for the rest of the meeting. But the presentation continues until the end without a hitch, and Jinwoo counts it as a win. 

 

**

 

Mino manages to be silent as Jinwoo wrangles him through the seemingly endless line of city officials and contractors, one hand firm on the small of Mino’s back to push him into bow after bow as they slowly edge their way to the exit of the building. He holds his silence up until they get into Mino’s Nissan, when the younger man absolutely loses it, flinging his arms wide in the silence of the parking building. 

“So can someone explain WHAT is that atrocity doing in my building?”

Jinwoo rolls his eyes, pushing Mino into shotgun before buckling himself into the driver’s seat, because Mino cannot be trusted with social media and moving vehicles when he gets like this 

“That atrocity is the design centerpiece that actually won us this tender. And more importantly, that is not your building, Mino-yah. It belongs to the City Council of Busan, who is a client we absolutely can’t lose. Also, seat belts please“

Mino grunts, buckling himself beside Jinwoo before grabbing the slickly-printed design booklet that was handed out during the meeting to rifle though it aggressively. 

“Hyung” He whines, even as Jinwoo resolutely sticks his gaze to the road “Did you change the final design without telling me?”

Jinwoo sighs, feeling the beginning of a tension headache flare on the back of his eyes because he really, probably should have gotten this out of the way much, much sooner. But sleep . Two hours. _Fucking energy drinks._

“We…had a last minute change to the façade that we did with the help of a local Landscaping firm” Jinwoo sighs again at the indignant sound from his side “And I know I was supposed to ask for your input before we finalized the tender document, but were up against OBBA and some hotshot American firm , and there’s no way we were going to win without something…more than what he had” 

Jinwoo bit his tongue at his last sentence because while it was true that they had needed an edge to their tendered design, it wasn’t as if Mino’s initial design was lacking in any way. It just wasn’t the right one and he really, really hopes that the younger man realizes this. 

Beside him Mino glares, hurt, at the designs as if it had personally insulted his cat, and Jinwoo can feel himself deflate – All the stress and irritation he had simmering down to some sort of sad exhaustion. 

“Look, Mino-yah, I’m really sorry for not telling you this sooner. But by the tail end of that tender you were already neck-deep in that exhibition hall project and I just…we just really need this project if we’re to cover our overhead expenses for this year after…after what happened “ 

The unspoken name hangs in the air between them – The missing third partner in their firm and a lingering source of tension in the empty spaces of their office. When Taehyun left at the end of last year - citing conceptual differences and a somewhat inevitable outcome of years upon years of mounting glitches between them three - he had effectively taken one-third of their client base with him.

And even though they weren’t on the edge of bankruptcy or anything, it was, and still is, a struggle for Jinwoo to fill in the void left by their youngest’s usual projects. He can feel Mino’s sobering mood starting to match his, and Jinwoo reaches out a hand to pat the younger on his thigh. 

“Just…let’s get through this and we’ll see if we can compromise between your original design and this new one, all right? I’m sure you can pull it off” 

Mino pouts, actually pouts, and Jinwoo is reminded all over again that Song Mino, award-winning young architect, three times elected Busan’s most eligible bachelor and his firm partner, is nothing but a big baby who is afraid of bugs and cries at sappy Christmas commercials. 

“I’ll even throw in some lobster dinners in the mix. The city’s paying us enough for at least four, at the very least”

Even without looking, Jinwoo can feel Mino’s eyes sparkle behind his glasses, and despite the ticking time bomb of the building’s façade, despite everything, Jinwoo can’t help but smile along. 

 

**

 

It’s not that Mino hates plants, really. 

It’s more that he hates the concept of using plants as a façade – as a cover up, a way to hide. He’s seen one too many subpar architects try to cover up design imperfections or plain laziness with trellises and strategically placed vegetations. Too many garden designers and so-called ‘landscape experts’ wanting a piece of the glory when all they do is heap shoddily-arranged vegetation upon perfectly good structures that would inevitably turn into a sad, wilting second skin of disappointment, or an absolute nightmare of maintenance bills. 

But he digresses. 

Mino might not like the concept of plants as a façade, might firmly swear on Louis Sullivan’s grave that yes, form _does_ follow function and frivolous ornamentation or some fake sense of responsibility towards the earth is definitely not a function that computes into his design. But he’s promised Jinwoo hyung that he will grit his teeth through this project and finish the whole thing - Mostly because the elder looks like he’s a mere two design revisions away from a psychotic breakdown and Mino really can’t lose his hyung that way. 

He just wants it on the record that he’s only doing this for Jinwoo hyung and definitely not because he thinks he needs the help of one – Mino looks disdainfully at the card on his hand – Kang Seungyoon of Kang & Lee Landscaping to finish _his_ building. 

The man himself enters their office with a taller man in tow – presumably the ‘Lee’ in their Kang & Lee endeavor, and oh, Mino knows the type. Kang Seungyoon is all prim and proper and clean-cut, his person awash in sedate pastel colors and an air of practiced politeness that sets Mino’s teeth on edge. Guy probably has a dog or something, because people like that can’t handle the complexities of the feline kind.

The man gave him a bright smile, shaking his hand before moving on to Jinwoo hyung and talks of their upcoming collaboration. Mino hates him already. 

Despite the fact that they’ve submitted the tendered documents, the last-minute nature of Kang & Lee’s inclusion meant that there’s a lot of things that are not actually in the drawings. Thirty minutes in, Mino finds out that he is to hash out the details of the vertical garden and how exactly it’s going to be integrated into the building with one Kang Seungyoon in Kang & Lee’s office while Jinwoo hyung settles their Construction certificate approvals. 

Mino decides to hate him forever. 

 

**

 

Mino pouts all the way to Kang&Lee’s office, because the only free time he usually has to himself is the interim between when the tender documents have been submitted and when he has to do their contract administration on site or move on to another project entirely. But now he’s going to be stuck in some strange person’s office trying to wrangle out convoluted details so said strange person can put plants in his building. 

“Chin up, Mino yah. Let’s just try our best, okay?” Jinwoo hyung smiles as he drops him off, tired yet beatific, like some Renaissance painting of a soon-to-be-martyred Saint. And really, who can say no to that?

Kang & Lee’s office is a small, understated affair in a semi-residential neighborhood. The first thing he registers upon opening the door is the faint bark of a dog from somewhere inside the building, and Mino sighs because sometimes he can be too spot on. 

And so begins his first day of being a collaborator of Kang & Lee landscaping. Seunghoon hyung he likes, the older man easy going yet firm in handling everything that comes their way – Like a less sweet, more assertive version of Jinwoo hyung. 

Kang Seungyoon, though. 

If Mino is to describe Seungyoon in one word, then in would be _finicky_. Mino has prepared himself for details, has prepared himself for difficult joints and all manner of drainage systems, even reread some of Jinwoo hyung’s favorite Detailbuch just in case. But Kang Seungyoon is apparently a fount of the most obscure concerns over details. 

Mino watches, flabbergasted, as point after point appears in small, scrawly handwriting on the whiteboard of the small meeting room they had commandeered. Who even knew that you need that much insulation and layers jut for a fucking potted plant? How much does that even weigh? He does a quick calculation of the beams and blanches, squints at the whiteboard because this changes _everything_. His calculations, his carefully arranged openings. Dang it, he has to punch a whole skylight in the middle of the building for this to work at all and not have _his_ building's centerpiece a wall of wilting disappointment. 

Three hours in and Mino wants to fling himself from the second story window into the neat, pristine residential streets. He doesn’t. But just barely. 

Jinwoo hyung counts it as a win, anyway. 

 

**

 

A few days into working together, their morning coffee orders gets mixed up and Mino realizes that not only is he a person who makes a living sticking plants into unsuspecting buildings, Kang Seungyoon also has a _terrible_ taste in drinks. 

Mino sputters at the overabundance of cream and sugar that assaults his tongue and looks in disgust at the offending cup. Seungyoon, not to be outdone, spits his Americano into a nearby potted plant.

“No wonder your taste is so bland” Seungyoon says, calm and level and challenging, clearly alluding to more than the drink in his hand. Mino doesn’t even want to think about the missing ‘hyung’ at the back. 

“And no wonder your taste is so excessive” Mino shoots back, fully aware that he sounds about five year old. But he doesn’t care. They’re grown ass working adults, for the love of God, not some hummingbird who lives on sugar water. Whatever that milky concoction is, that is not fit for human consumption. And nor does his building need all of these frilly seasonal plants sticking on them. 

Seunghoon walks in on the two of them glaring daggers at each other, mixed-up order still clutched tightly in hand, and groans. 

“Yah! You know what, next time I’ll just buy you lot water and be done with it – Just switch your drinks and get back to work!”

Mino pointedly leaves his drink on the table as he continues to work. Seungyoon never touches his either. 

 

**

 

A week in, and Mino finds out Seungyoon has an adopted dog named Thor. 

“As in, the God of Thunder. Huh. Who names their dogs like that?” Mino tells Jhonny, playing with her paws as the munchkin cat looks on disinterestedly at the distance. “Everyone knows DC is better anyway”

Jhonny meows, clearly bored. 

He doesn’t tell Jhonny, nor anyone else, how the tiny poodle was clearly a rescue – Too thin and too skittish still even after what must be weeks of Seungyoon’s meticulous care. Doesn’t tell how Seungyoon’s shoulders relaxes and his smile spreads wide like a child’s when the pup snuggles into his sweater. 

It’s not like it has anything to do with his building. 

 

** 

 

Construction documents for the vertical garden rolls along and Mino wants to _die_. The details, even after all the hours they spent over it, or probably exactly _because_ of it, are being an absolute bitch and Mino doesn’t want to hear the word ‘drainage’ ever again. Why did anyone ever agree to the idea of a two-sided vertical garden? 

Despite what fame his and Taehyun’s, and later on Jinwoo hyung’s designs had garnered for their firm, Inner Circle is still a small firm with limited manpower. Thus too many nights to count, Mino finds himself relegated to the role of a drafter – CAD and Revit screens blurring together as he draws and annotates each of the painstaking part of their joint structure. 

Seungyoon and his even smaller team helped, of course, but the bulk of the work still falls into Mino’s hand as he’s probably the only one who understand how the whole thing even sticks to his main structure anyway. 

More and more, Mino finds himself staying well into the small hours of the night in Kang & Lee’s office. Even after he waves everyone off and Seunghoon hyung slips out of the back entrance to do God knows what, it will always be Seungyoon who stays – clicking away on his humongous iMac cataloguing plants or whatever.

“I’ll still be a while” Mino finally says, one night when the crossbeam joints are being especially tricky “I can lock up and put the key in the usual place”

“It’s fine, hyung” Seungyoon doesn’t even turn away from his screen, the younger man’s face half-obscured by his high-backed chair “Working together is always nicer than working alone”

“Just as long as you keep your lattes away from me” Mino blurts out after an embarrassingly long pause, because he doesn’t trust himself to say anything else outside of the safety of their coffee dispute. 

Seungyoon snorts, finally looking over his shoulders at him.

“And you keep that vile bitter thing away from me” He drawls, saluting him with a half-empty cup of latte that is more ice than coffee now. 

And yet, Seungyoon is right. Working together is always nicer than working alone. 

Mino’s worked alone before. He knows. 

 

**

 

“Don’t you think these inclines are a tad too steep?”

Mino blinks from his stolen reverie, neon marker poised in midair and the endless stretch of their printed design drawing waiting to be revised. Seungyoon’s expectant face hovers across the white expanse, and Mino blinks again, finding the steps that Seungyoon mentioned.

“Let’s see, +0.20…that’s still well within standards”

“Children might find it a bit high though. Pretty easy to stumble on that if they’re running – Especially with these many steps”

Mino squints at the floorplan critically “I mean, we do have a children’s section on the ground floor, but there won’t be that many children around, won’t there” he pauses “And in any case, they’ll usually go with their parents to supervise them, right?”

It’s Seungyoon’s turn to pause, his own neon marker uncapped and hovering over a misaligned gutter. There’s something distant in his eyes that Mino can’t quite place. 

“My amma used to work late into the night” He says, all of a sudden and Mino blinks “So after school it’s usually just me, and being home alone…it gets really lonely”

The small meeting room suddenly feels very, very quiet for Mino – The slow ticking of the clock above the whiteboard the only thing on the background. “So I’d go to all these places. Public parks, playgrounds, libraries, anywhere that has a lot of people, you know. And I reckon if something like this” He gestures to the building plans spread out between them “Had been around, I’d have loved to come there too. There’s..” 

Seungyoon draws a slow breath, eyes still distant, still too unguarded for Mino “There’s a lot of children that comes to places alone. More than we might think, anyway”

“I…I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-” Mino lunges at the word, stumbles, not knowing how to react. Remembers his mom and dad, Danah, snacks after school and his Appa’s booming voice when he comes home and feels a strange pang in his stomach. 

“It’s all right” Seungyoon laughs, eyes crinkly and warm once again “What I meant to say is that, you know, public spaces like these – It’s for everyone” He gestures again at the floorplan – the atrium wide and spacious and open for the streets to bleed into “There’s going to be children, moms with prams, halmeonnies, everyone. And while I think it’s really pretty like this, don’t you think it should be more…open? As in, when people see it they’d be like – Ah, I can belong here”

And Mino sees it too, now that Seungyoon’s said it. Belong. He remembers himself as a child, running into the embrace of walls and rooms and feeling like he belongs, like he’s home. Remembers wanting to create something like that too.

“Yeah” He says, quietly, a tad breathlessly “I think you’re right” 

Seungyoon beams, smile so bright that Mino has to look down. Instead, he trades his neon marker with a pencil, and goes to work.

Later on that day, Mino changes the steps into a gentle ramp, marvels at how much more fluid - How much more _friendly_ the space looks, imagines the sun-flooded atrium bleeding seamlessly into the surrounding corridors and the streets beyond. Tries his damnedest not to smile like an idiot. 

Seungyoon sidles up behind them, looks at the revised design and smiles, and Mino is helpless but to join him. 

 

**

The first time they drink together, it’s to celebrate Jinwoo hyung’s success in wrangling all of their construction certificate approval to completion. Mino never personally got acquainted with the nightmares of quotes, amendments, or staring down private certifiers just to have their buildings built, but he knows that Jinwoo hyung works really hard and probably deserves all the drinks in the world for it. 

After a raucous toast with their Inner Circle team and some of Kang & Lee’s, Jinwoo hyung sighs in contentment as he settles into his seat and begins putting away his own weight in alcohol. Beside him, Seunghoon hyung is merely sipping his drink, and nods placatingly at Mino, as if assuring him that he’ll keep an eye on his hyung.

Mino salutes with his glass at the older man before finding a quiet nook for himself near the bar, feeling like he needs a good amount of alcohol in him too after the nightmarish week he’s had with his drainage system.

He doesn’t expect Seungyoon to sidle up beside him on his booth – Smile bright and glass still full – The slightest hint of pink across his full cheeks. 

What he doesn’t expect more is for Seungyoon to be such a good drinking buddy. A bit of a lightweight, but still sober enough to laugh at all the right places and point out amusing things in the bar. Hazily, he remembers Seungyoon’s trademark quip at him, night after night.

_“Working with someone is always better than working alone, isn’t it?”_

Mino feels a smile take over his lips, mellowed by the alcohol and the sheer proximity of one Kang Seungyoon, who’s apparently migrated from the other edge of the seat flush beside him “You know what, Kang” Mino slurs.

“You’re not so bad, for someone who puts plants in buildings for a living”

The younger man snorts, before sloshing his drinks all over the table and Mino laughs. Fucking lightweight. 

“You’re not so bad yourself” Seungyoon quips back, probably just out of reflex “For an architect”

“Nothing wrong with architects” From beneath the layers of alcohol-induced fuzziness, Mino manages to scrounge up some indignation. 

“Y’all snobby. But you’re…you’re pretty aright. Snobby…but aright“ Mino notices the Satorii in the younger man’s usually smooth voice, wants to giggle like a schoolgirl as he realizes how cute the whole thing is. How cute _Seungyoon_ is. 

The thought is sobering, sudden. Mino drinks more, pretends he never realizes. 

 

**

 

On week four, Seungyoon asks Mino about his camera.

They’ve switched base camps to Inner Circle’s office, now that the majority of the work is drafting and detailing their final design drawings. Seungyoon camps in Mino’s personal office most days, making a home in its leftmost corner where Mino lines up his cameras and shots. 

“Seunghoon hyung says I need a hobby” Seungyoon snorts, as a way of explanation “You take photos a lot, don’t you, hyung?” He gestures at the wall of polaroids on his left – A mishmash of buildings, people, and memories that Mino wants to commit to memory forever. If Seungyoon notices that there are glaring, empty spaces between the otherwise neat grid of photos, he doesn’t say it.

“I like it” Mino shrugs “And what’s this about you not having a hobby, huh? I mean, what do you do in your spare time?“

“I take Thor for walks, I guess?”

“What else?”

“I…rearrange our vegetation database and past project files?” Seungyoon's mouth is set into a wry line, as if already expecting an adverse reaction. 

“That’s... _not_ a hobby” Not one to disappoint, Mino deadpans. 

“That’s what Seunghoon hyung’s been saying” Seungyoon shrugs, and Mino reaches out over him, taking his instax from its perch above Seungyoon. He angles the camera, catches the ray of sunlight that slips past the blinds of his office to pattern itself on Seungyoon’s face. Clicks.

“Yah! Aren’t you supposed to ask people before photographing them?” Seungyoon yelps, eyes wide and reaching for the polaroid coming out of Mino’s camera. Mino grins and offers him the instax instead.

Seungyoon accepts nevertheless, turning the camera over and over on his hands before nodding in finality, rising from his seat. 

“I guess I’ll try it out”

“What? Right now?”

Seungyoon shrugs again, the lines of his shoulders elegant, a contrast against his soft, pouty mouth. “No time like the present, right? It’s pretty nice out”

“You always say it’s pretty nice out” Mino grouses. But Seungyoon is already walking towards the door, hand waving lazily in parting before he disappears completely into the depths of the office.

Mino shakes the polaroid in his hand, more by reflex than anything else, flips it to find the picture perfectly developed – Seungyoon’s likeness caught forever with sunlight painting his cheeks and lips parted soft and unaware. He looks at the polaroid for a long time, moves to stick it amongst the row of photos, hovers above an empty space, stops. 

Mino puts the picture down on his table, and goes back to work. 

 

**

 

“Up for some drinks?”

Week six is the deadline for their design drawings and in all honesty, Mino is up for anything else but the screen of his computer. He did plan for some nightcap before passing out on Inner circle’s communal sofa – But a drink with Seungyoon doesn’t sound so bad at all.

Mino just didn’t plan to drink so _much._

Somehow, the two of them ends up at Inner Circle’s rooftop – the pool chairs they usually use during the summer dragged close together for warmth as they hog whatever alcohol was stashed inside the office. Mino vaguely remembers it being Seungyoon’s idea – and of course it is. Seungyoon would probably look at a honest to God blizzard and go “Why don’t we take a walk? It’s nice out!”. 

“Sometimes I think people are like plants” 

“Huh?” Mino tries to turn his head to the side, the buzz of alcohol and the close quarters making him uncoordinated. 

“Even though we were given voices and the chance to, we don’t really try to communicate that much, don’t we? We don’t…we don’t really talk that much to others”

Mino honestly doesn’t have any intelligent answer to this philosophical line of thought, and so settles for a tried and tested “Huh?”

Seungyoon, for one, doesn’t seem to even hear him, eyes staring straight at Seoul’s smog-covered night, all glazy and unfocused “That’s why I like plants. Because sometimes…Sometimes I think they’re so like people. They’re just there, living their lives, and sometimes they bloom, sometimes they wilt – Never saying anything.”  
Seungyoon laces his fingers together above him, fingers long and neat .

“Sometimes I think that if we just look at plants close enough, really understand it then maybe, maybe…we might understand people better without them having to talk that much”

“That’s…” Mino breathes, following the lines of Seungyoon’s fingers against the muted black of the night sky. “That’s some deep shit, Seungyoon-ah”

Seungyoon chuckles beside him, then pokes his side with a bony elbow. Mino yelps. 

“Why are you so against plants, anyway?” Seungyoon mutters, words slurred and heavy and Mino is suddenly too aware of the other being too close, too warm by his side “Like what has it ever done to you?” 

“Nothing” Mino laughs, too drunk for nerves anyway “It’s not the plants, you know”

Seungyoon lets out an disbelieving grunt.

“No, really. You know why…why I like buildings?”

The younger man grunts again, and Mino takes it as a cue to continue. 

“Buildings are honest” Mino says, after some time “You enter a building and most of the time, you know where to go – Because that’s how they’re designed. People are supposed to be able to find their way – in, out, around. Doors looks like doors, and walls are there because they’re needed”

Mino pauses, stops. Breathes the chill air and remembers, remembers. 

“I have…used to have this friend. This one guy. We were…close, but he wasn’t all there, you know. And I feel like…were he a building, he’d be covered, just covered with plants” Mino makes an abstract, wobbly gesture with his hands “And it just obscures everything. The doors, the windows, and I can’t…can’t get in because these plants helps him hide, you know?” 

And then Mino falls silent, because remembering is exhausting and he is afraid afraid afraid that he’s spoken too much, too soon. He squeezes his eyes shut, as if it would make everything go away.

Mino feels rather than registers the shuffling beside him, the clink of a bottle being put down on concrete before a pair of warm hands takes him by the elbows. 

“Let’s get you home” Seungyoon’s voice is sober, gentle. 

Mino doesn’t remember how exactly Seungyoon manages to get him home, nor how the younger man knows where his home is at all. But come home he does, and the memory of Seungyoon’s warmth beside him lulls him to sleep. 

 

**

 

Come morning, Mino already expects the blinding hangover – His curtains blessedly shut and a glass of water preemptively planted on his bedside table courtesy of Jinwoo hyung. What he doesn’t expect is one Kang Seungyoon on his door. 

“Jesus, Kang” Mino says, flinching at the volume of his own voice “It’s a Saturday. We don’t have to go to the site today”

“It’s nice out. Thought we’d go photo hunting” The younger man , face hidden behind humongous sunglasses before he tosses an identical one at him. Mino totally let that clatter to the floor because who the hell expects him to have fucking reflexes at eight in the morning after drinking all night long?

They end up in a nearby park – the warm sunlight and crisp early spring air doing wonders to Mino’s faculties. Jinwoo hyung had sent them off with one large tumbler of water each that Mino’s been sipping gingerly, and together with the weather, Mino thinks he’s finally feeling like a human being again. 

After a few shots – Halfhearted on his part and enthusiastic on Yoon’s – the younger man pulls him deeper into the park, past laughing children and smiling parents on benches and into a hidden nook surrounded by flowering shrubs. There is a small oasis of pale green grass, almost perfectly round nestled by the shrubs and it’s almost architecturally perfect – Like a small piazza surrounded by collonades. 

Seungyoon takes his hand, down, down into the grass until they are lying side by side and Mino’s whole vista is the crisp spring sky and gentle, budding branches. He breathes in the spring air, camera forgotten in his hands. 

“Nice, isn’t it?” Seungyoon beams.

Mino hums noncommittally. It was…nice. Almost as if he’s surrounded by a building, but… _alive_.

“It’s doesn’t have to be something to hide in, hyung” Seungyoon says beside him, gentle and warm and not too close but just right. 

“It can also be something you live in”

Mino has to say that he agrees. 

 

**

 

Around the tail end of their design drawing phase, Seungyoon found Taehyun’s drawings. They were put away carefully in the sliding drawers of Mino’s office – right under the blank papers he stashed there.

“These aren’t yours, aren’t they?”

Mino restrains himself from bolting off his seat, from taking the drawings from Seungyoon’s hands and putting them back, and instead watches Seungyoon lay out the drawings on the table they share. Watches Seungyoon trace the sketches and designs with his eyes. 

Taehyun’s drawings has always been more flamboyant – Lines fluid where Mino’s are strong and jagged, designs folding in on itself where Mino’s radiates and spreads.

Seungyoon studies the drawings for a long time before gathering them up and placing them back in his drawers – slipped beneath all the blank papers that stares back at Mino. 

“I like yours better” Seungyoon finally, finally says, smiles his now familiar smile as he reaches out across the table “It’s more honest. Like you are”

Seungyoon places his hand above Mino’s – Warm, gentle, firm, just like Seungyoon - and Mino feels content. 

 

**

 

The touches became a norm, over time. Their design drawings are done, spring is coming to and end and all that’s left to do is supervise the construction. Somehow, Mino keeps finding reasons to visit Seungyoon’s office, and Seungyoon his. Revisions and periodic inspections becomes cherished things – hands alighting on shoulders or fingers intertwining as their building slowly sprouts from the gaping maw of its foundations up, up into the sky. 

Mino accompanies Seungyoon to the plant nursery, letting his fingers brush the myriad of textures that mother nature provides and smile along at Seungyoon’s pure joy at being surrounded by so many living, thriving things. In turn, Seungyoon accompanies Mino material hunting – fingers brushing on surfaces coarse to granite-smooth, smiling as Mino haggles prices and shakes his head at each individual tile samples until the supplier brings out the one that is just right. 

Seungyoon’s Instagram gallery fills up with photos – The edges white to echo Mino’s polaroids, and when their coffee orders are mixed up, they wordlessly trade it with each other with a smile. 

"Fucking finally" Seunghoon hyung grunts, even as Jinwoo hyung laughs softly on his arms. 

 

**

 

The Southern Busan municipal library opens up with many a fanfare, and at the very center of it all : The city’s very own architectural rising star, creating his latest buzz together with an up and coming local landscape designer. 

“I would say” The lady from the architectural magazine says, the fifth one that day to say so "This whole integration of vegetation, the open layout... it's very atypical of your designs”

Around them, the library is alive with voices and movement - people chattering and taking selfies and flowing from one corridor to the next. Mino hears children - Loud and joyous and quick on their feet, running from one end of the atrium to the other.

“Over the course of designing this building, I think…” Mino begins, feels Seungyoon’s hand intertwining with his under the table and he smiles – Feeling warm, safe - Feeling like he _belongs_.

“I’ve learned that every building needs a touch of green”

 

**FIN**

**Author's Note:**

> So this started with a photo set I made on twitter, and then just grew and grew into this weird fic as more and more people added to this weird architect vs garden designer AU XD 
> 
> Apologies for the architectural ramblings, as I'm an architect by training and all these are near and dear to me, as well as these two hopeless babies ;___; Comments and any kind of feedback would be greatly greatly appreciated, and I hope both nature and your built abode continues to house and protect you well <3


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